If you want good advice on how to build the fight back against Trumpism and all its works, where would you look?
Would you be lending your ear to discredited pundits who completely misread the political situation and utterly failed to keep Donald Trump out of the White House?
Specifically, should we be listening to the blandishments of career RW shills who, having been swamped by the the wave of Nativist populism that swept Trump to the GOP nomination, fancy themselves competent to declaim on the best way to combat his occupation of the Executive Branch of Government? Those who have spent their professional political lives busily planting the seeds that have sprouted into the poisonous weeds of Trumpism? Who have for decades dedicated themselves to the destruction of the Democratic Party and it’s Liberal/Progressive values?
Evidently for some the answer is yes, yes, yes and yes.
The argument for this breathtaking flight from political common sense seems to be that anyone who comes out against Donald Trump deserves to be unconditionally embraced, irrespective of their political history or long term goals. More, that their “advice” as to how best to build the resistance should be taken at face value and treated seriously as a good faith effort to broaden and strengthen the mobilization against Trumpism.
This is, in a word, rubbish.
The fundamental error here is the unstated assumption that the resistance is fueled by opposition to Trump the individual rather than the political forces he represents. The people who have been out in streets protesting, while they may very well despise the man, aren’t engaged in some political variation of American Idol. They aren’t participating in a celebrity popularity contest. They are mobilizing to defend themselves and their values against a reactionary onslaught. If we want to strengthen and broaden that resistance, those are the people whose opinions and ideas we should be listening to, not the self serving bloviations of GOP operatives who find themselves abandoned by their base.
Let’s be clear. The likes of David Frum, Jennifer Rubin, et al., have not changed their spots. Their goals remain the same as they have always been; promoting a reactionary RW agenda and their own careers. Having been steamrolled in their own party, they no longer represent any significant constituency beyond a narrow layer of anti-Trump propagandists and aparatchiks. They seek not the defeat of Trumpism per se but merely the defeat of Trump.
Is there any real doubt that were President Trump replaced by President Pence they would happily embrace that outcome?
What such people are fighting for is their lost prestige and political turf. That is not what the resistance is fighting for. It is the height of political folly to pretend otherwise.
David Frum is a thoroughly discredited GOP insider who is persona non grata in his own party in the age of Trump. The idea that he is a source for good advice on how to make the resistance to Trump more effective, or that he represents some untapped reserve of anti-Trump sentiment on the right, is laughable.
So let Frum and his fellow political orphans attack Trump to their hearts content. Applaud and encourage them if you like. In that regard they may be of some use. Don’t, under any circumstances, present them as founts of political wisdom and integrity. They aren’t.
The enemy of your enemy isn’t your “friend”. The enemy of your enemy is simply the enemy of your enemy. No more, no less.
Wednesday, Feb 8, 2017 · 10:04:17 AM +00:00
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WB Reeves
Just want to thank you all for the recs and stimulating comments and to apologize for not being here to respond in real time. I hadn’t planned on writing a diary and dashed this off on the spur of the moment. Unfortunately I didn’t allow time for dialogue. Some great comments though.Thanks one and all.